In an age where the topics on high school curriculums have become more specialized, many schools are moving away from the old-style “high school” models and towards a middle school curriculum that is more customized to the needs of young students.

While it may seem that such a move would require major changes in how teachers arrange their lessons and work, there are a few benefits that can be gained from this move. There are, after all, significant benefits to making changes to a curriculum.

If you’re an education official and are pondering whether or not to make changes to your curriculums, here are 6 benefits of making the change:

More Personalized Learning Experience

No matter what kind of educational experience you’ve had in the past, you can always expect that it will provide you with some opportunities to learn about people from different backgrounds and experiences.

By studying curriculum material from all over the world and with all kinds of people from all kinds of places, you will be able to expand your horizons in an extraordinary way.

By studying middle school curriculums from all sorts of different areas, you can see the world in new ways. And that’s what truly makes curriculum personal.

Expand Your Vocabulary

The best way to learn new things is to simply talk about them. If you don’t know how to explain something to someone, ask for help. If you don’t know how to make an argument, use examples to show how one person is right and another wrong.

Learning to speak a new language allows you to expand your vocabulary beyond what you could have learned from reading text books. This is an important part of any middle school curriculum, so consider taking this route. If you need a better explanation, you’ll likely find it through lots of research and example situations.

Develop a Solid Backpack Program

Even though you don’t have to use every topic in the book at once, you should always have at least a few important topics in your arsenal.

Some middle school curriculum suggestions recommend using a backpack program every year, covering all sorts of different topics.

Others require you to build up your knowledge over several semesters, reviewing topics you’ve already learned and new ones. Either way, you need to develop some skills to avoid being bored in school.

Learn How To Set Priorities

The middle school curriculum often calls for children to set a number of different goals for themselves throughout the year. For example, they might want to work toward becoming more independent or they might want to improve their scores on the AP test.

You can help your pupil with this task by setting weekly and monthly goals for them. Then they have to figure out how to achieve those goals and you can help them by providing a clear road map and clear expectations.

Encourage Independent Thinking

It’s easy to criticize students who are always arguing with their teachers or fellow classmates. But it’s not good for anyone to rely on other people to do their homework or to process data or to get their own ideas across to other students.

So, encourage your pupil to think for themselves. Give examples when they make a smart decision or finds a valuable lesson. Even show them how they can use that knowledge to solve a problem or come up with an idea of their own.

Role Playing Games

This is rather a method of improving your curriculum than a benefit of it, but it’s an important one nonetheless.

There is a big trend in middle school curriculum recommendations to use role-playing games. Your pupil can spend time pretending to be a doctor or an engineer or a soldier, and you can give them realistic feedback about their performance. This also creates an environment where kids can learn about real world situations while engaging in pretend play.